The latest Gallup tracking poll shows Obama starting to woo some of Clinton's key demographics to his camp. The newest polling shows that Obama leads or ties Clinton among women, Easterners, whites, adults with no college education and Hispanics. Get used to these kinds of results. As I've argued before this idea that Obama won't be able to pull in the key Clinton support groups is ludicrous.
What the media fails to understand is that this country is still pissed at Bush and the Republicans. Sure, McCain may seem like a nicer version, but when it comes down to a choice between Obama and McCain, the Clinton supporters aren't going to sit around and say, "I don't like what Obama said about Hillary in the primary." No, they are going to realize that McCain is wrong on virtually every important issue and they will forget the primary and coalesce around Obama.
This is why the loss in West Virginia by 40 points is not a sign of what ails the Obama campaign. And it's why a 20-point loss in Kentucky tonight won't mean that either. The media is looking for chinks in the armor, but they miss the central point that the vast majority of this country believes we are on the wrong track and have been for a while. A vote for McCain won't change that. A vote for Obama will.
3 comments:
I agree, this is what I’ve been trying to tell people. The media puts far too much weight on Obama's performance against Clinton in the primaries when attempting to determine how he will fair against McCain in the general. Deciding between Obama and Clinton is a wholly different experience than deciding between Obama and McCain. It may be difficult deciding between Oatmeal Cookie Chunk and Imagine Whirled Peace but it certainly isn’t difficult choosing between Ben and Jerry’s and some soft serve crap. I think the Thin Man will appreciate the B & J reference.
I think there's also a distinction between Clinton voters and Clinton supporters. It's possible that a sizable portion of those who are voting for Clinton in WV, PA, etc wouldn't even vote for her against McCain, let alone Obama. If I really love soft serve, but I can't eat it because it's all gone (i.e. nomination race is over) I'm going to go for the B&J that's most like soft serve. But once that soft serve is available again, my B&J allegiance is no more.
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